chiknsmack

That sounds plausible; Scienza is a bit of a stat nerd/computer game favourite. I think MLG was posting graphs on here before he signed showing that he was an extreme outlier in some attacking stats, and the YouTube channel Sincere FC has a couple of videos applying the NBA metric usage rate (how often your team's possessions end with you) to football, where Leo stood out. When comparing "end product" (goals, assists, and shot-creating actions) to this usage rate (both stats being per 96 minutes played and adjusted for team possession stats), he was amongst the highest in Europe for both stats last season. For CAMs he's in the same region (but ahead of) players like Bruno Fernandes and Eberechi Eze. That is, his teams possessions end with him a lot, and he creates a lot with the ball. Paul Onuachu also got a special mention in one of the videos. His usage rate last season was higher than players like Mbuemo and Saka, but his end product was practically non-existent (ie. his high usage rate came from him losing the ball a lot as the only target man for a shit team, as opposed to Mbuemo/Saka/Scienza getting theirs from attacking and shooting a lot).

Three at the back, three at the front, four in the middle to help out with both. I imagine Welington will be the most attacking and Jelert the least, so plenty of opportunity for Jander and (more likely) Charles to get forward. It'll be interesting to see how the back three line up. Wood is clearly the best in the air of the three so should be in the middle, the other two are clearly better with the ball at their feet than Wood so should be out wide, but they also both want to be on the right. (Some would say that THB had been finding himself out of position a lot early this season when playing on the right, so stick him on the left and even if his positioning is shit it's just par for the course.) Having a right-footed LCB - whoever it may be - means he's more interested in playing into midfield than down the line. Instead of long balls down the line or to the striker, Jander can get a chance to get on the ball in midfield.

He was signed from the German second division. Sporting Director Johannes Spors has come here from the German second division. Head of Scouting Tim Lederer has come from Hoffenheim, where the first team is in the German top flight and the seconds (who he was more involved with) are in the third. There are plenty of situations where SR have used stats and data to help with recruitment (as every side does nowadays), but to say Downs (and Quarshie) are anything other than signings where Spors used his eyes is retarded. If you're going to do that you also have to give credit for finding Tadic and Pelle to "computer data" and the "black box" rather than Koeman. It's just as obvious that they were signed on the back of Koeman using his eyes as it is that Downs and Quarshie were signed on the back of Spors using his eyes. Maybe Spors should've gone to Specsavers, but that's another argument.

They pay us the £15m they owe, AND they pay us £80k a week to cover most of his wages? He then comes back to be what, Azaz's backup? Or does he replace one of Azaz/Charles/Jander and deprive a youngish player we have on a permanent contract of valuable developmental minutes in the Championship? Neither of them are good enough for West Ham. We want to be better than West Ham. Neither of them are good enough for what we want to be. So I'd prefer neither and another Charles/Jander/Fernandes/Lavia YHGTI gamble instead. Gun to my head I'd say JWP, though it's close. But the answer is neither.

How much?

He was good, but in the wrong area of the pitch. He needed to get further up the pitch so the side as a whole could play further up; him playing so deep is part of the reason there was so much "Russball" in the first half. If Fellows pushes right up and pins the fullback back, there's room for Azaz or Jander to drift out and pick up the ball where Fellows was and then look to play forward.

Still doesn't have a preferred style, his preferred strategy is "whatever wins". At Reims it was Ralph-style counterpress and playing long balls in behind after a turnover to send a pacey striker (Balogun) through one-on-one with the keeper. At Lens it was a 4-2-5 (with the keeper as part of the four) when being pressed, with the front five a long way up the pitch and looking to drop into the massive space between them and the holding midfielders to pick up the ball. Or a 3-2-5 when further up the pitch (with the keeper staying at home). The wingers pushed right up to pin the fullbacks, which meant if Plan A (AMs dropping back from the front five into central pockets to pick up the ball from the back five) wasn't working, Plan B was the AMs dropping back and wide where the defenders and holding mids couldn't follow them and fullbacks couldn't go to them for fear of leaving their man (the wingers) free. Even on the occasions where "wingers whipping in crosses" has been a thing, it's been from Plan B and the crosses have generally been low crosses after an AM has drifted wide and worked an overload on the opposition fullback. It hasn't been "float one to the back post and let the big man go get it" type crossing. Archer, Downs, and Armstrong are all well-suited to the Reims plan, but that plan overall suits an underdog better than one of the (allegedly) best teams in the league. You could try to force that plan by consistently punting the ball long to the opposition (forcing them to have most of the possession and try to play though you) and then pressing the fuck out of them, but at this level and against us they're more likely to just punt the ball back and maybe win it with their Moore/McBurnie-style CFs. So I'd expect the Lens plan (pack the central areas, play short passes, if playing through the middle isn't working force overloads in wide areas and fire crosses/pullbacks into the box) to be more like what we see. Tall Paul isn't built for pressing. He also isn't built for tapping in low crosses (there's past evidence of him getting into good poaching positions and scuffing them in, which is a little better than Downs so far who gets into the right position but whiffs the shot entirely). There's no evidence of him running in behind and scoring a goal like Downs did in preseason. So no, we shouldn't have kept him.

The (default, flat) 4-4-2 doesn't have a four-man midfield. It has a two-man midfield and two wingers. Variants of the 4-4-2 like the 4-box-2 (Ralph's 4-2-2-2) or 4-diamond-2 (with two CMs playing narrow and FBs providing the width) do. The line you quoted also specified a "two-man central midfield".

Had we not had Juric you'd be saying he's "good enough for Atalanta but not for Saints".

I threw together a 25-man squad with mostly the most valuable free agents (according to Transfermarkt) and it came out to €89.4m. That's around €3.58m per player, which in the Championship would fall between Middlesbrough in 7th and West Brom in 8th. The values of the free agent players would be depressed by the fact that most of them are past their prime and have no "potential" left to realise, so on talent it's probably a better squad than those two. (The average age is 30.6, three years older than any other team in the Championship). On wages they'd probably want considerably more than they're worth (a former Barcelona/Inter/PSG/Al-Arabi player with a value of €2m like Rafinha would want higher wages than a young prospect valued at €2m like Matsuki) , and most of them have zero sell-on value. So it'd be a disaster financially. A first and second XI in a 4-2-3-1: Or in a 3-5-2: A decent number of players who in their prime were well above Championship level, and who even now cdaj at that level (though probably not for 90 minutes a game and 46 games). If the motivation was there and the injuries didn't hit too hard, is that a Championship playoff side that could go on to get 12 points in the PL?

Mateus Fernandes vibes. A little older, a little less hype, a little behind on the path (Fernandes had a year on loan in the Portuguese top flight before we signed him, Jander hasn't had any top flight experience yet) but the potential for a similar outcome.

He won a lot of defensive headers. That was the first time I'd seen much from him to get excited about.

Meslier is no better than Bazunu. With Ramsdale still on the books we were never going to be spending up on another proper #1, and with McCarthy on the wages he's on we were unlikely to push him down to #3 and make him the highest paid cone-picker-upperer in Championship history. Ryan on a free made perfect sense to me, but otherwise it was always going to be a random warm body to be #3. If you're looking for a positive, some people want Sargent from Norwich and the fact that we've picked up a player from them means our recruitment team is talking with theirs. He's their captain and has scored four in four this season so I don't know what our chances are, and on the negative side I'm wary that no PL clubs have come for him so they must not think he's good enough (though maybe 15 goals in the equivalent minutes of 28 games last season wasn't enough; this season at 25/26 could be the one where he scores 25/26 in 35 and gets his PL move whether his club gets promoted or not). He required surgery last season and missed a couple of months, so he has the perfect injury profile for a SR signing. And he speaks American so he and Downes can help each other settle in.